Mystery within a mystery:
what explains the strange behavior of George Bush at the
Booker School on 9-11? As discussed in articles on Emperor's Clothes, his actions make *no* sense unless he was
privy to the attack plans for 9-11. But if he *did* know
the plans, why did he act in a manner that so obviously
betrayed consciousness of guilt?

"Provocation,
Blunders and Cover-up" answers this and other key
questions. Sign up for the pre-publication
mailing list. If you're reading this in email, please
write bookon911@aol.com

-- John Flaherty,
Emperor's Clothes

=============================================

FAQ #1: "Wasn't
the government unprepared for 9-11. How could they have
responded?" [Posted 29 December 2001]

Answer:

This argument has been made repeatedly by the media:

"...The coordinated assault on the world's
financial and political capitals caught the United
States completely off guard -- despite a massive
intelligence and law enforcement network devoted to
detecting and thwarting such attacks...[This was
because efforts were] focused largely on guarding
against bomb threats to overseas targets... " ('The
Washington Post,' September 12, 2001)

It has been made by top government/military officials:

"We're pretty good if the threat's coming
from outside. We're not so good if the threat's
coming from inside." (General
Richard B. Myers in testimony at Senate hearing
on is nomination to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, September 13, 2001) (2)

The argument resonates with many Americans because it
corresponds to how they experienced 9-11. They were
shocked and unsure what to do.

But most Americans are not part of the air traffic
control system, which is run by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), or the air defense system, run by
the military.

Most are unaware that these systems have routine
procedures developed over many years. These procedures,
practiced in drills and used in day-to-day situations,
are meant to ensure that air safety and air defense
personnel can function when confronted with unexpected
events, even though ordinary people are understandably at
a loss.

Consider this, by way of comparison. Imagine that one
night a Canadian arsonist slips into Buffalo, New York,
and using a new incendiary device, starts fires in four
elementary schools.

People pull fire alarms near two of the schools. A
neighbor calls the Fire Department when he sees smoke
billowing out of the third school. And there is a Fire
Station right across the street from the fourth school.

Yet not one fire truck arrives until after the schools
have burned to the ground.

When asked why, the Buffalo Fire Chief explains,
"We're good at dealing with Buffalo arsonists but
nobody expected some guy to sneak in from Canada!"

The Chief would be laughed out of court. People would
say, "When the alarms came in, how could anyone in
the Fire Department have known that these fires were
started by a Canadian arsonist? And even if they did
know, why wouldn't they just follow their normal
procedures - you know, slide down the pole, put on their
coats, climb into the fire truck, turn on the siren. Why
didn't they at least show up and try to put out these
fires?"

The same holds true for 9-11.

As we have documented in 'Mr.
Cheney's Cover Story,' the FAA and the military have
routine procedures for intercepting commercial jets. (3)

An Air Traffic Controller can call for an escort (that
is, a military jet) to be sent up to find out why a
commercial jet has flown off course and guide it to a
safe landing place. Or an escort can be used to put pressure
on an uncooperative pilot or to intimidate a hijacker
with a show of force. (4)

Which brings us to the matter of Andrews Air Force
base. Andrews is ten miles from the Pentagon. It is the
airport used by the President and other top officials, so
of course it has to have escort planes. This was
especially true on 9-11 because Air Force One, the
President's jet, was in flight that day.

(2) Gen. Richard B. Myers at Senate confirmation
hearing 13 September 2001Full transcript at:http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/mycon.htm
The particular quotation about the U.S. being ill
prepared to deal with internal terrorism was reprinted by
mainstream media sources.

(5) This quote comes from the DC Air
National Guard (DCANG) Webite. The Website was changed
around 911, possibly just after it; the quote is gone.
The pre-911 DCANG Website can still be read at an archive
site. For instructions, go to http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/update630.htm#b

=============================================FAQ #2: "You
charge that the military was made to stand down on 9-11.
But didn't planes in fact scramble? Didn't they just
arrive too late?"[Posted 3 January 2002]
=============================================

Quick Answer:

The new cover story, that
"the planes were sent up but they arrived too late"
also arrived pretty late: it was first put forth on
September 14th on the CBS 6 PM news. Until that time, top
officials said that no planes were scrambled to protect
Washington, DC until after the Pentagon was hit. Vice
President Cheney was giving out the old story as late as
September 16th on the NBC TV program, MEET THE PRESS...(1a)

"Oh
what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to
deceive!" - Sir Walter Scott.

More Detailed Answer:

This is the
CBS cover story we mentioned in Section 1 of our Summary
of Evidence. (1)

According to this cover story, jets
were scrambled from Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod to
intercept Flight 11, the first plane that crashed into
the World Trade Center. Also, supposedly, jets were
scrambled from Langley Air Force Base to intercept
American Flight 77, the plane that crashed into the
Pentagon. In both cases, the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) supposedly called for the
interceptors too late. Also, Otis AFB is about 185 miles
from New York and Langley AFB is 129 miles from
Washington, DC. So the interceptors supposedly had too
far to travel.

Dan Rather broadcast this cover
story on the CBS 6:00 news, September 14th. This was the
first time that anybody said planes were scrambled from
Langley AFB on 9-11. We did a little research and found
31 references to Langley in the English-speaking mass
media, that is newspapers & TV, worldwide, between
September 11th and the CBS News at 6 PM on the 14th.

Not one of these news reports about
Langley Air Force Base mentioned Dan Rather's excellent
new fact!

General Richard B. Myers, Acting
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9-11, appeared
before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September
13th. He testified at great length. The Senators asked
him three times about the failure to scramble planes on 9-11.
But Myers said nothing about planes scrambling from
Langley Air Force base, where he had been stationed from
1987 to 1990. (3)

Apparently there was a
communications problem getting the new cover story to
some top officials. For instance, as late as September 16th,
Vice President Cheney was telling 'MEET THE PRESS' that
George Bush personally made the decision to send up
interceptors and suggesting he had done so only after the
Pentagon was hit. (1a)

And during a CBS News Special on
September 12th, Dan Rather asked CBS Military Consultant
Major Mitch Mitchell:

"These hijacked aircraft
were in the air for quite a while, they made unusual
turns, to say the least. Would--why doesn't the
Pentagon have the kind of protection that they can
get a fighter--interceptor aircraft up, and if
someone is going to plow an aircraft into the
Pentagon, that we have at least some--some line of
defense?" --CBS News Special Report (12:00 Noon
PM ET) - September 12, 2001 "Aftermath of and
investigation into attacks on World Trade Center and
the Pentagon." (1b)

Nobody contradicted the Dan Rather
of September 12th until the new reality was unveiled by
the Dan Rather of September 14th.

How amazing that fighter jets could
be scrambled from Langley before the Pentagon was hit
without a single top leader of the military or the Bush
administration knowing it happened!

What a relief for President Bush,
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Richard B. Myers (who
happens to be the most powerful general in the Air Force)
and Dan Rather himself to learn the good news from Dan
Rather on the six o'clock news, September 14th: the Air
Force had indeed sent up interceptors. It was just that
nobody knew...

Read the transcript
of that CBS news program. You will see that Rather cites
no source for his new 'information.' He just says,
casually, "CBS News has
learned..." (2)

Four (4) days later, also without a
word of explanation for this rewriting of history, NORAD
incorporated the CBS report in its official timeline. The
Langley interceptors had become a Fact.

We will explore several problems
with the CBS/NORAD cover story in soon-to-be-published
sections of the Summary of Evidence.

The following may be of particular
interest.

First, the move from "we didn't
put planes up until after the Pentagon was hit,"
which was the official story until Sept. 13th, to "we
put planes up before the first World Trade Center attack,"
was for the most part carried out during General Richard
B. Myers' testimony before the Senate Armed Services
Committee on September 13th.

Second, if you read the transcript
of that Senate hearing, (3) you can
witness the new cover story being constructed right
before your eyes.

Under pressure from the Senators to
come up with something convincing, Myers twice changed
his testimony, putting forward three entirely different
versions of what happened September 11th. Myers' last
'reality' was pretty close to what Dan Rather reported at
6 PM the next day. In between, Myers and the Senators
went into a closed (i.e., secret) session.

Here is an excerpt from Senator Bill
Nelson's comments at the Armed Services Committee hearing.
Note if you will the highly suggestive language, phrases
such as, "Perhaps we want to do this in our session,
in executive [i.e., secret] session," and
"I leave it to you as to how you would like to
answer it. But we would like an answer." He doesn't
outright say, "Your cover story stinks." But he
sure suggests it:

BILL NELSON: Perhaps we want to
do this in our session, in executive [i.e., secret]
session. But my question is an obvious one for not
only this committee, but for the executive branch and
the military establishment. If we knew that
there was a general threat on terrorist activity,
which we did, and we suddenly have two trade towers
in New York being obviously hit by terrorist
activity, of commercial airliners taken off course
from Boston to Los Angeles, then what happened to the
response of the defense establishment once we saw the
diversion of the aircraft headed west from Dulles
turning around 180 degrees and, likewise, in the
aircraft taking off from Newark and, in flight,
turning 180 degrees? That's the question. I
leave it to you as to how you would like to answer it.
But we would like an answer." (4)

The CBS/NORAD cover story did not
successfully answer Nelson's questions.

That is, since planes were flying
into buildings, and since Washington, DC was the city
most likely to be the next target, why would planes be
scrambled all the way from Langley Air Force Base, 129
miles from Washington, as late as 9:30? Why wouldn't they
be scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base, 10 miles from
the Pentagon, at around 8:50, when the military knew that
a hijacked plane had hit the World Trade Center? Or at 9:06,
when, we are told, the FAA ordered all planes grounded,
from Washington, DC to Cleveland! (5)

The irrationality of the CBS/NORAD
cover story supports our charge that the military was in
fact ordered to stand down on 9-11.

*************************************FOOTNOTES AND FURTHER READING FOR
FAQ #2:*************************************

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